When we talk about the heroes of the American Revolution, names like Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin often come up. You hear the tales of Paul Revere's midnight ride, Betsy Ross sewing an American flag, and George Washington crossing the Delaware.
But rarely do we hear about the six-foot tall, rifle-toting woman who held her own against the Tories in the dangerous backcountry of Georgia.
The exact details of her story are a little murky — mostly true with some legend mixed in — so I'm going to try to tell the best version that I can here, but even if they aren't all exactly correct (none of us will ever know for sure), there's no doubt that Nancy Ann Morgan Hart was an American patriot.
Nancy grew up in the North Carolina colony on her parents' farm, where she learned how to do "women's work," like cook, but also learned how to hunt, fish, farm, and fix things. Eventually, when she was in her twenties or early thirties, depending on whom you ask, she married a prominent farmer named Benjamin Hart. They set out to find better land and ended up in Georgia's backcountry, near what's now the northeastern part of the state. Benjamin eventually became a lieutenant in the Georgia militia, which means Nancy was often home alone raising their eight children.
The thing is, Nancy wasn't just like every other woman. First of all, she was big. It's said that she stood six feet all, was incredibly muscular, and had an Amazonian-like appearance. Some say she had wild red hair, freckles, and a face scarred from small pox, and she was a bit cross-eyed, but others say that's just a story the British Loyalists told because they were embarrassed that a woman often got the best of them. Her appearance aside, while Hart most likely had no formal education and couldn't read, she made up for it with grit, ability, and common sense. She was an excellent marksman and wasn't scared of much of anything. The local Creek Indians called her Wahatche, which means "war woman."
And boy, did she hate British Loyalists. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia:
She emerged as a staunch patriot, facilitating the American cause as a spy. She often disguised herself as a simpleminded man and wandered into Tory camps and British garrisons to gather information, which she subsequently passed along to patriot authorities. She was also an active participant in the conflict and, according to some accounts, was present at the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14, 1779.
But it's what she did at home that really helped her make a name for herself. The most famous story involves a group of five or six Tories walking up to the family cabin. Some say they were searching for someone — a Whig on the run who Nancy had just helped escape — while others say they were simply taking advantage of the situation. Either way, they insisted Nancy make them a meal. Rather than refuse, Nancy put on a smile, and she and her daughter Sukey served up some Southern hospitality in the form of one of the family's turkeys and their finest whiskey. Before long, the men were drunk and not paying attention to the women around them.
Nancy sent Sukey to the creek for water and instructed her to blow into a conch shell to alert Benjamin and some neighbors who were off working in the fields. When Sukey returned, she remained outside, and Nancy began passing her the men's rifles through a window or door. Finally, one of the Tories saw what was happening and lunged at Nancy, but she shot him. Another one lunged for the gun, but she shot him, too. Holding the gun high, she managed to keep the others hostage until Benjamin arrived.
Her husband wanted to shoot the remaining men, but it's been said that Nancy wore the pants in the family, and she said shooting was too good for them. She wanted to see them hang. So, the Harts and their neighbors marched the men outside and, at her request, hung them from the trees. Over a century later, in 1912, some railroad workers founds six skeletons buried about three feet deep, near where the Hart cabin was located, likely proving that this wasn't just an old folktale.
There are other stories of Nancy's bravery, like the time she caught a Tory spying on her through a hole in her cabin wall while she was making soap and threw boiling water on him, or the times she made a raft out of logs and grapevines and crossed the Savannah River on her own.
After the war, Nancy and Benjamin reportedly moved to Brunswick, down along the Georgia coast, but Benjamin died shortly after. Nancy moved back to the Athens area for a while before eventually moving to her son's home in Kentucky. She reportedly lived to be about 90 years old and developed a strong faith after the war. Former Georgia Governor George Rockingham Gilmer once wrote of her:
A Methodist society was formed in her neighborhood. She went to the house of worship in search of relief. She found the good people assembled in class meeting, and the door closed against intruders. She took out her knife, cut the fastening and stalked in. She heard how the wicked might work out their salvation; became a shouting Christian, fought the devil as manfully as she fought the Tories...
Hart's legacy lives on here in Georgia. There are 159 counties in the Peach State, and only one of them is named for a woman: Hart County, which sits along the border with South Carolina. She's also the inspiration behind the city of Hartwell and Lake Hartwell, a 56,000-acre a popular reservoir that also sits along the border of the two states.
During the Civil War, a group of women in LaGrange, Ga., formed a militia to protect the town from the Yankees and called themselves the Nancy Harts. The Daughters of the American Revolution have also built a replica cabin near where the old Hart cabin stood, using chimney stones from the original home.
As I said, it's hard to know which ones were true and which ones were simply stories passed down and embellished over the years, but one thing is certain: without Nancy and people like her, there would be no United States.
